DR Congo: UN to send 3,000 more peacekeepers

The United Nations is to boost its peacekeeping forces in DR Congo by 3,000
troops and police.

In a unanimous resolution, the UN Security Council agreed to boost the 17,000-strong mission known by the acronym Monuc by "up to 2,785 military personnel, and the strength of its formed police unit by up to 300 personnel."

The temporary reinforcement will last until the end of December, but could be renewed at the same time as the mandate of the UN mission which also expires then.

The resolution, drawn up by France and co-sponsored by several nations including Britain, stressed the temporary increase was to enable "Monuc to reinforce its capacity to protect civilians, to reconfigure its structure and forces and to optimize their deployment."

It further "underscores the importance of Monuc implementing its mandate in full, including through robust rules of engagement."

The force is already the UN's largest peacekeeping mission deployed anywhere in the world.

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The nationalities of the extra 3,000 troops and police are yet to be determined, but are likely to be drawn largely from the current major contributors, which are India, Pakistan, bangladesh and Nepal.

Britain, which currently has five Army officers attached to Monuc's planning staff, is not expect make a large contribution.

France's UN ambassador, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said that it would probably "take some weeks" to get the new peacekeepers on the ground.

Recent fighting has pitted government troops against rebels led by the renegade Tutsi leader General Laurent Nkunda who claims to be purging the region of rival Hutu militias in the aftermath of the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.

More than 250,000 civilians have fled their homes since the latest fighting began in August. The violence in the country, which was devastated by a five-year civil war at the turn of the decade, has caused yet more suffering for the local population.